Veal, Hill named Cubs Minor League Players of Year
September 18, 2006 - Midwest League (MWL1)
Peoria Chiefs News Release
PEORIA, IL- Former Peoria Chiefs pitcher Donnie Veal was named Co-Cubs Minor Leauge Player of the Year over the weekend. The left-hander, who spent the first half of the 2006 season in Peoria, shared the award with another former Chiefs pitcher, Rich Hill who has been the Cubs best starter in September,
Veal, went 5-3 with a 2.69 ERA in 14 starts with the Chiefs as Peoria won the First Half Western Division Title. In 14 starts he held MWL hitters to a .179 average and won five of his last six decisions. In his 73 2/3 innings of work, the 22 year old struck out 86 batters and walked 40.
Veal was promoted to Daytona of the Florida State League at the All-Star Break and went 6-2 with a 1.67 ERA in 14 starts for Daytona. He held FSL hitters to a .170 average and struck out 88 in 80 2/3 innings.
For the season, Veal went 11-5 with a 2.16 ERA in 28 starts. He struck out 174 batters in 154 1/3 innings while walking 82 and allowing just seven homers. Batters his just .175 against Veal and the lefty allowed three or fewer earned runs in 25 of his 28 starts.
Veal shares the 2006 Cubs Minor League Player of the Year award with another left-handed starting pitcher Rich Hill. Hill, 26, made 15 starts with Iowa this season and posted a 7-1 record with a 1.80 ERA. in 100 innings he struck out 135 and walked just 21. He struck out 14 batters in back to back starts July 16 at Albuquerque and July 22 against Memphis before earning a trip back to Chicago. Despite not pitching in Iowa after July 22nd, Hill still finished second in the Pacific Coast League in strikeouts. He started the AAA All-Star Game and was named the left-handed pitcher on the post-season PCL Team.
Hill made one start with the Chiefs in July 2005 striking out 12 Cedar Rapids Kernels over eight innings of work as the winning pitcher. This season he is 6-6 with a 4.12 ERA in 14 starts with the Cubs. in 87 1/3 MLB innings he has struck out 73 and walked 35. Hill has been magnificent recently and he threw the Cubs first complete game of the season on Friday to beat Cincinnati. In September, Hill is 3-0 with just three earned runs allowed in 30 innings for a ERA of 0.90 over his last four starts. Hill has not allowed more than two earned runs since losing at Colorado on August 11th
This is the second season in a row that a Chiefs player has won a post-season Cubs Minor League Award. In 2005, two Chiefs, Eric Patterson and Sean Gallagher both took home Cubs hardware. Patterson was the 2005 Cubs Minor League Player of the Year and Gallagher was the Cubs Minor League Pitcher of the Year. Gallagher excelled at both Daytona and AA West Tenn in 2006 while Patterson was a AA All-Star and finished the season in AAA Iowa.
• Discuss this story on the Midwest League message board...
Midwest League Stories from September 18, 2006
- Veal, Hill named Cubs Minor League Players of Year - Peoria Chiefs
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
